The Invisible Substance of Home: Architecture, Eviction and Foreclosure
Mentor 1
Arijit Sen
Location
Union 344
Start Date
28-4-2017 1:00 PM
Description
Housing policies implemented in the past, such as redlining, have created areas within American cities where poverty is highly concentrated. The low-income rates and high housing cost that have resulted from redlining has greatly contributed to the vast amount of foreclosures and evictions within impoverished communities like Washington Park. Consequently, these communities are exposed to the negative impacts associated with living in areas that contain large amounts of vacant homes and homeless residents. This research presents a vivid century long pictorial, structural and economic transformation of two foreclosed homes that were used as a case study. These houses are located in the Washington Park Neighborhood in Milwaukee, WI, once a vibrant middle class neighborhood, but has since morphed into a poor neighborhood as a result of economic decline, changing infrastructure and racist housing policies. One home was vacant and the other was filled with the belongings of the previous tenant(s) who had been evicted.
This study aims to examine how foreclosure and eviction affects the architecture and cultural landscape of the community. The findings from this research shows that the interconnectivity between income, foreclosure and eviction has created an inability for Washington Park residents to become self-sufficient. As a result, the architecture of the homes has deteriorated over time because many of them are hardly inhabited or repaired. The cultural landscape has diminished due to the displacement of community members and the disinvestment in jobs and other basic resources throughout the neighborhood.
This research provides a historical perspective of the Washington Park Neighborhood regarding some of the challenges that are disabling it from becoming stable—economically and socially. It also acknowledges how a system of unequal distribution of wealth and power operates in the built environment every day.
The Invisible Substance of Home: Architecture, Eviction and Foreclosure
Union 344
Housing policies implemented in the past, such as redlining, have created areas within American cities where poverty is highly concentrated. The low-income rates and high housing cost that have resulted from redlining has greatly contributed to the vast amount of foreclosures and evictions within impoverished communities like Washington Park. Consequently, these communities are exposed to the negative impacts associated with living in areas that contain large amounts of vacant homes and homeless residents. This research presents a vivid century long pictorial, structural and economic transformation of two foreclosed homes that were used as a case study. These houses are located in the Washington Park Neighborhood in Milwaukee, WI, once a vibrant middle class neighborhood, but has since morphed into a poor neighborhood as a result of economic decline, changing infrastructure and racist housing policies. One home was vacant and the other was filled with the belongings of the previous tenant(s) who had been evicted.
This study aims to examine how foreclosure and eviction affects the architecture and cultural landscape of the community. The findings from this research shows that the interconnectivity between income, foreclosure and eviction has created an inability for Washington Park residents to become self-sufficient. As a result, the architecture of the homes has deteriorated over time because many of them are hardly inhabited or repaired. The cultural landscape has diminished due to the displacement of community members and the disinvestment in jobs and other basic resources throughout the neighborhood.
This research provides a historical perspective of the Washington Park Neighborhood regarding some of the challenges that are disabling it from becoming stable—economically and socially. It also acknowledges how a system of unequal distribution of wealth and power operates in the built environment every day.
